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Vintage Synth Repair

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RE: [vintagesynthrepair] If it were possible

2015-03-20 by Hamblin, Scott

I see some potential for this approach, especially where the original instruments have major chronic electronic problems. Leaking acid from dead batteries in vintage analogue synths from the 80’s is a good example of that. The Korg Poly Six suffered terribly from leaky battery acid destroying it’s brain. The widespread problem spawned a couple of niche suppliers to make replacement boards like the Kiwi Six which incorporates a bunch of new features like a clever arpeggiator and better midi etc…Poly Sixes with the Kiwi Six brain sometimes come up on eBay and command a solid price. Clearly somebody out there likes them!

From: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com [mailto:vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com]
Sent: Wednesday, 18 March 2015 6:51 PM
To: vintagesynthrepair@yahoogroups.com
Subject: [vintagesynthrepair] If it were possible

Ok I've learned my lesson with Korg parts ;-)

I have 2 x 01/w FD both with the similar noisy fault on all outputs.

Pretty much changed everything from the opamps to the caps, switched power boards and output analog boards all to no avail.

So assuming the copyright issues with the original manufacturers could be overcome would it be worth it having some short runs of motherboards made for a variety of synths. Would anyone be interest to start this as a project?

Not just for Korgs but other old synths with common faults.

It must be better to repair one machine than to rip the heart of another 2 or 3 to keep one going. I know we are not quite there yet with 3d printer fab for this type of thing so costs wont be incredibly cheap but it might be more friendly to the environment to repair rather than make land fills.

Anyone else have any opinions on this one? Of course the manufacturers may be totally against it in which case it would be a no-go.

Best regards

Tee.

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